Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Garbage was way off…

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Remember that song back in the ’90s? I’m only happy when it rains? Yeah, not so much when it comes to covering Spring Training down here in Florida.

The sky opened up with some heavy sheets of water this morning, forcing the Jays to move to their indoor cage for bullpen sessions and batting practice. It was a sloppy day all around with not a whole heckuva lot going on.

That’s probably why the most interesting thing that came out of today was a tidbit from the Record, based out of the Waterloo/Kitchener area. In this fine piece, the writer takes a shot at Jays catcher Gregg Zaun, among others, with this dandy:

An aside, if you will, on Zaun: If this guy really did consume some human growth hormone, or whatever, he got sold a giant bill of goods from a crooked dealer. Zaun looks like a doughnut-scarfing mutual fund salesperson, not a pro-ball catcher.

Zaun had a good chuckle at pretty much being called a fatso. "I’ve come full circle," the catcher said with a grin. "I’ve been called diminutive, I’ve been called someone with a slight build, I’ve even been called a hobbit. But I’ve never been called fat."

Zaunie joked that he thought about sending the author some Krispee Kremes in honor of his work. With Sal Fasano standing closeby, I said, "Zaunie, it’s better than being called a bratwurst-scarfing Bears fan." Fasano turned and threatened to knock me out, so I quickly reversed course (side note: I am a HUGE Bears fan and have been known to thrown down a brat or two in my time).

There’s a section in the article where the writer refers to Frank Thomas as "Tubby Thomas," and he wrote, "If baseball spring training were truly a gruelling, gritty shape-up struggle, Frank Thomas wouldn’t be so doggone fat, now, would he?"

Has this guy ever seen Thomas in person? Thomas is a huge man-beast — an intimidating behemoth of a person. One thing he is not is fat. He’s large, yes, but the Big Hurt is solid. It’s always nice how guys who are never around a team on an everyday basis feel the urge to take such swipes at players.

Oh, baseball news: Roy Halladay will start the second spring game, which is the first home game in Dunedin. Jesse Litsch will start the Grapefruit League opener, with Casey Janssen likely following him in relief. After Halladay, it’ll be Dustin McGowan, A.J. Burnett and Shaun Marcum.

This rotation allows Halladay to pitch on Opening Day in New York and for Burnett to slot in as the No. 2 guy, following by McGowan and Marcum. As for Litsch and Janssen, people within the organization are still divided on the issue of who should be the fifth starter. I’ve heard some players vying for Janssen to remain in the bullpen.

4 Comments

Can’t wait for the season to start. That Halladay start on opening day in New York will be exciting. We crushed Wang last year, so bring him on. I assume he would be starting for the Yanks? But you never know.

Ladies and gentlemen, Matthew Leach of MLB.com’s Cardinals’ site has graced us with his presence. M, I wasn’t dissing your precious Garbage — merely saying I was in no way happy that it was raining. The Dude abides…
-JB

Meta

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